Waterslide decals crack

[rankot]

I have the problem with waterslide decals - I print them, everything looks fine, then put clear coat with acrylic transparent spray twice, let dry for 12 hours, but when I soak them in water, they crack so much, that they are split in parts... I have no idea what is wrong, can anyone help?

It looks really nice before soaking - surface is glossy, even and smooth, but it cracks. Just thrown three sheets into trash... 

Tried to keep it flat with my fingers while soaked (because without that it will roll), but that didn't help either.

[Jarno]

Try a different brand of clearcoat?

These are the waterslides for inkjet printers? Which brand are you using?

[rankot]

It's not easy to try different brand, because in my town only this one is available. I'm using unbranded Chinese papers. I used them before, but they didn't crack, and also used the same coating. Maybe I sprayed too thick now?

[davent]

My guess is coating too heavily, mist coat, very very lightly. If they're laser printed you may not even need to do the clear coat before soaking and applying.

[rankot]

OK Dave, I'll try with two or three very light coats.

I printed them on inkjet. Also have some for laser, but my Xerox Phaser seems not to be working properly, I have ghost images on left half of those and similar thick papers.

[ElectricDruid]

If they're laser printed you may not even need to do the clear coat before soaking and applying.

Depends. On my laser printer, if you don't clearcoat, the toner lifts off the backing!

[rankot]

I have the kind of decal paper for laser which is fine without the coating, but I have white only and the printer itself has a problem with fusing, it seems. Half of the paper prints fine, another half has ghosts.

[Jarno]

Busy doing waterslide graphics on an enclosure myself today. I also noticed some cracking, mine happened during clearcoat application, and in the area where one of the guide wheels of the printer is.
There was no crack before clearcoat, but when I returned to do the last coat (of three) of clearcoat I noticed the decal cracking open. I do think I used too thick a layer for each pass, so I am going to go lighter in the future (currently using two passes of clearcoat for each layer, so three pairs of passes in total).
I am using inkjet waterslide decals, had a cheapie laserprinter in the past, and actually never used clearcoat before application for those (I do apply a few coats on the enclosure after application, is anyone using waterslides without topcoat?).

[anotherjim]

I don't go in for this kind of thing myself (yet), but in the case of laser printing, there are some examples of fuser trouble here.
https://www.metrofuser.com/post/symptoms-of-bad-fuser

[deadastronaut]

i recently used waterslide ''laser'' paper, instead of inkjet, as i have a black only laser printer

and compared to inkjet paper the laser paper was nice and thin..

it said you may not need topcoat, however some said the toner image would crack without it, so i did a very light coat of clear on the laser paper, then cut out, and it still seemed a bit thinner to use...

as for clearcoating once dried, go light, and easy...just dust it first...a few coats of dusting, let dry thoroughly,

then go for the full gloss finish coat.....dont rush it. just my 2p.

[rankot]

i recently used waterslide ''laser'' paper, instead of inkjet, as i have a black only laser printer

and compared to inkjet paper the laser paper was nice and thin..

it said you may not need topcoat, however some said the toner image would crack without it, so i did a very light coat of clear on the laser paper, then cut out, and it still seemed a bit thinner to use...

as for clearcoating once dried, go light, and easy...just dust it first...a few coats of dusting, let dry thoroughly,

then go for the full gloss finish coat.....dont rush it. just my 2p.

I don't even get to the final coating - my decals crack and split while in water! Maybe I put too much clear coat on them? I will try no with less coating, just dusted two times. Wish me luck!

[deadastronaut]

I have the kind of decal paper for laser which is fine without the coating, but I have white only and the printer itself has a problem with fusing, it seems. Half of the paper prints fine, another half has ghosts.

my toner finally ran out last year, and i bit the bullet and bought a new full cartridge,

and against advice, and my own doubts i went cheap and bought a non samsung knock off, fro around £12

rather than the expensive samsung cartridge.

and its perfect...nice and clean, and prints fully again, maybe your toner is running out. 

make sure you turn off toner save, and choose dark and best image when printing too in your print options. .


edit: i use car clear coat in cans.

[rankot]

No, toner is quite new and prints excellent on regular paper. But with thick papers (PVC printable foil too), left side of a page has ghosts and toner is not fixed (you can erase it with fingers), while right side prints well. I believe there's a problem with a fuser or something like that.

[Kevin Mitchell]

Your fuser is cooling off too quickly with the thicker media. Try changing the paper type. Usually selecting transparency works well here.

Is it just plain ole toner or that petroleum free stuff that's going around? When in doubt, go OEM.

It could also be something silly like a faulty power supply or even poor quality paper that was either made bad or stored improperly.

[rankot]

Your fuser is cooling off too quickly with the thicker media. Try changing the paper type. Usually selecting transparency works well here.

Is it just plain ole toner or that petroleum free stuff that's going around? When in doubt, go OEM.

It could also be something silly like a faulty power supply or even poor quality paper that was either made bad or stored improperly.

It happens on almost every paper thicker than plain, so I presume it has nothing with paper, but with the printer. Also had the same problem with plain paper, but different toner, so that toner was lower quality than this one. After replacing the toner, plain paper is OK, but left side of the print still ghosting with thick papers, which means there's a problem with printer - if this toner is bad too, it will ghost on the whole paper, not just the left side (I'm talking about the left side in portrait mode - which is, actually, the left side of the printing mechanism).

[Rob Strand]

After replacing the toner, plain paper is OK, but left side of the print still ghosting with thick papers, which means there's a problem with printer - if this toner is bad too, it will ghost on the whole paper, not just the left side (I'm talking about the left side in portrait mode - which is, actually, the left side of the printing mechanism).

If the gap between the rollers on the fuser isn't even it could do that.   It could even be dirty.  Perhaps you could do a web search for common problems on your model printer.

[Jarno]

Definitely a hidden cost of laser printers, that not only the toner is a consumable, but also fuser and sometimes drum, especially with colour laser printers, it adds up (although admittedly, you do need to print A LOT of reams of paper).

[rankot]

Definitely a hidden cost of laser printers, that not only the toner is a consumable, but also fuser and sometimes drum, especially with colour laser printers, it adds up (although admittedly, you do need to print A LOT of reams of paper).

This one didn't print more than 1.000 pages... It had problems with printing on thick papers almost from beginning, but I didn't notice that before warranty was over. 

[Kevin Mitchell]

Definitely a hidden cost of laser printers, that not only the toner is a consumable, but also fuser and sometimes drum, especially with colour laser printers, it adds up (although admittedly, you do need to print A LOT of reams of paper).

Toner cartridge type printers have the drums built into the cartridge while toner bottle type printers have them externally as an additional consumable item. I believe most desktop LaserJet printers are cartridge based but there are some exceptions though uncommon nowadays as there's more profit in the cartridges industry.

If your printer is old enough it may be worth while finding a maintenance kit to revitalize it. But really besides rollers the important item is the included fuser. Again it depends on what type of printer it is. Usually people wait until it's so bad it becomes inoperable before taking action but really it's a common measure of preventative maintenance. Some printers are set to show a msg when it's time to use the kit and most people bypass it over and over.

Probably not helpful, but I know more than I care for about printers 

[slashandburn]

I've only ever ran into issues with B+W toner decals once, and it seemed.to be down to the paper.

I have had issues though with cracking on inkjet decals quite a bit and what worked for me seems to be contrary to the other advice here. More coats, longer drying time. Lately I'm at 4 mist coats and then a 5th slightly heavier coat, then two or three days to dry before I dip that thing in water.

Could the issue be the toner or the decal paper rather than the lacquer? The toner is basically plastic, and the decal paper shrinking or expanding even slightly in water could cause that to crack or distort.